Brief Light on the Second Wave, Arizona - Tyler Westcott Photography

Brief Light on the Second Wave, Arizona

As I've mentioned before back in February when I had my great trip around the southwest, we were fortunate enough to have access to the Coyote Buttes Wilderness area. We also had the unfortunate curse of lackluster weather, and consequently shot under overcast skies most of the day. While setting up to shoot the Second Wave, located a couple hundred yards beyond the better-recognized wave, the sun made one of it's brief appearances and lit the sandstone nicely, particularly in contrast the the dark skies behind it. The change in light was dramatic enough to cause me to overexpose the sandstone towards the center of the frame. I had wanted to preserve the image as well as work on a black and white conversion and found that this shot was a good candidate.

I filtered (digitally) as though a yellow filter was applied, which caused the more brightly lit sandstone to remain bright relative to its surroundings but without blowing out and losing detail. Beyond that I made a levels and gamma adjustment to lighten the image a little and gave it a modest boost in contrast, particularly in the bottom left which was otherwise a little flat.

I really wanted to get a new photo up online and was thinking either something from Oregon or Yosemite, but with the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest right now it's too hot to sit inside at my computer. I only have a few of my photos on my laptop, but that doeds include photos from the southwest, so I can sit outside, enjoy a beer and cooler weather while working on this photo instead.

Nikon D90 | Sigma 10-20@20mm | f/8 | 1/500s | ISO200 | Handheld

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